Galactic astronomy

Short description: Study of the Milky Way galaxy and its contents

An artist's conception of the Milky Way

Galactic astronomy is the study of the Milky Way galaxy and all its contents. This is in contrast to extragalactic astronomy, which is the study of everything outside our galaxy, including all other galaxies.

Galactic astronomy should not be confused with galaxy formation and evolution, which is the general study of galaxies, their formation, structure, components, dynamics, interactions, and the range of forms they take.

The Milky Way galaxy, where the Solar System is located, is in many ways the best-studied galaxy, although important parts of it are obscured from view in visible wavelengths by regions of cosmic dust. The development of radio astronomy, infrared astronomy and submillimetre astronomy in the 20th century allowed the gas and dust of the Milky Way to be mapped for the first time.

## Contents

* 1 Subcategories
* 2 Stellar populations
* 3 Interstellar medium
* 4 See also
* 5 References
* 6 External links

## Subcategories

A standard set of subcategories is used by astronomical journals to split up the subject of Galactic Astronomy:[1][citation needed]

1. abundances – the study of the location of elements heavier than helium
2. bulge – the study of the bulge around the center of the Milky Way
3. center – the study of the central region of the Milky Way
4. disk – the study of the Milky Way disk (the plane upon which most galactic objects are aligned)
5. evolution – the evolution of the Milky Way
6. formation – the formation of the Milky Way
7. fundamental parameters – the fundamental parameters of the Milky Way (mass, size etc.)
8. globular cluster – globular clusters within the Milky Way
9. halo – the large halo around the Milky Way
10. kinematics, and dynamics – the motions of stars and clusters
11. nucleus – the region around the black hole at the center of the Milky Way (Sagittarius A*)
12. open clusters and associations – open clusters and associations of stars
13. Solar neighborhood – nearby stars
14. stellar content – numbers and types of stars in the Milky Way
15. structure – the structure (spiral arms etc.)

## Stellar populations

* Star clusters
* Globular clusters
* Open clusters

## Interstellar medium

* Interplanetary space \- Interplanetary medium \- interplanetary dust
* Interstellar space \- Interstellar medium \- interstellar dust
* Intergalactic space \- Intergalactic medium \- Intergalactic dust

## See also

* Galaxy
* Milky Way
* Extragalactic astronomy

## References

1. ↑ "Galactic Astronomy - Subcategories | The English knowledge database" (in en). https://science-train.com/w/Galactic_astronomy/Subcategories.html.

## External links

* Mapping the hydrogen gas in the Milky Way

* v
* t
* e

Astronomy

* Outline
* History
* Timeline
* Astronomer
* Astronomical symbols
* Glossary

Astronomy by|

| Manner|

* Amateur
* Observational
* Sidewalk

|

Celestial subject|

* Galactic / Extragalactic
* Local system
* Solar

EM methods|

* Radio
* Submillimetre
* Infrared (Far-infrared)
* Visible-light (optical)
* Ultraviolet
* X-ray
* Gamma-ray

other methods|

* Neutrino
* Cosmic rays
* Gravitational radiation
* High-energy
* Spherical
* Multi-messenger

Culture|

* Australian Aboriginal
* Babylonian
* Chechen (Nakh)
* Chinese
* Egyptian
* Greek
* Hebrew
* Indian
* Inuit
* Medieval Islamic
* Serbian
* folk astronomy
* Tibetan

Optical
telescopes|

* List
* Category
* Extremely large telescope

* Gran Telescopio Canarias
* Hubble Space Telescope
* Keck Observatory
* Large Binocular Telescope
* Southern African Large Telescope
* Very Large Telescope

Related topics|

* Archaeoastronomy
* Astrobiology
* Astrochemistry
* Astrophysics
* Astrology and astronomy
* Astrometry
* Astroparticle physics
* Photometry
* Physical cosmology
* List of astronomers
* French
* Muslim
* Russian
* Women

Portals|

* Astronomy
* Solar System
* Physics
* Spaceflight
* Stars

* Category
* Commons

* v
* t
* e

Galaxies

Morphology|

* Disc
* Lenticular
* barred
* unbarred
* Spiral
* anemic
* barred
* flocculent
* grand design
* intermediate
* Magellanic
* unbarred
* Dwarf galaxy
* elliptical
* irregular
* spheroidal
* spiral
* Elliptical galaxy
* cD
* Irregular
* barred
* Peculiar
* Ring
* Polar

Structure|

* Active galactic nucleus
* Bar
* Bulge
* Dark matter halo
* Disc
* Disc galaxy
* Halo
* corona
* Galactic center
* Galactic plane
* Galactic ridge
* Interstellar medium
* Protogalaxy
* Spiral arm
* Supermassive black hole

Active nuclei|

* Blazar
* LINER
* Markarian
* Quasar
* Radio
* X-shaped
* Relativistic jet
* Seyfert

Energetic galaxies|

* Lyman-alpha emitter
* Luminous infrared
* Starburst
* blue compact dwarf
* pea
* faint blue
* Hot dust-obscured

Low activity|

* Low surface brightness
* Ultra diffuse
* Dark galaxy

Interaction|

* Field
* Galactic tide
* Cloud
* Groups and clusters
* group
* cluster
* Brightest cluster galaxy
* fossile group
* Interacting
* merger
* Jellyfish
* Satellite
* Stellar stream
* Superclusters
* Walls
* Voids and supervoids
* void galaxy

Lists|

* Galaxies
* Galaxies named after people
* Largest
* Nearest
* Polar-ring
* Ring
* Spiral
* Groups and clusters
* Large quasar groups
* Quasars

* Superclusters
* Voids

See also|

* Extragalactic astronomy
* Galactic astronomy
* Galactic coordinate system
* Galactic empire
* Galactic habitable zone
* Galactic magnetic fields
* Galactic orientation
* Galactic quadrant
* Galaxy color–magnitude diagram
* Galaxy formation and evolution
* Galaxy rotation curve
* Illustris project
* Intergalactic dust
* Intergalactic stars
* Intergalactic travel
* Population III stars

* Book
* Category
* Portal

* v
* t
* e

Major subfields of astronomy

* Astrobiology
* Astrochemistry
* Astrometry
* astrophysics
* Cosmochemistry
* Cosmology
* Extragalactic astronomy
* Galactic astronomy
* Orbital mechanics
* Physical cosmology
* Planetary geology
* Planetary science
* Solar astronomy
* Stellar astronomy

0.00

(0 votes)

Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic astronomy. Read more

|

Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Astronomy:Galactic_astronomy&oldid=429867"
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template